I've always used vinegar and it's worked every time. I even made a red and white quilt with JoAnn's Country Classic solids and I've machine washed it since I've finished it and there is not one single spot of red on the white. I just fill put the fabric in the washing machine, dump in half a gallon on white vinegar, fill the machine with cold water just to cover the fabric and let it sit for at least an hour. I then empty out the water, and wash with laundry soap on hot. I throw in a piece of white fabric just to be sure and I've never had a color transfer to the white. I'll probably get flak for this, but, just saying, it has worked for me for years.

And did you test all those fabrics first to see if they actually were bleeders to begin with? Why go through that whole process if the fabric is not going to bleed anyway? Vinegar will definitely result in no bleeding if the fabric wasn't going to bleed in the first place.

It is a chemical impossibility for vinegar (or salt) to prevent todays dyes from bleeding. You have simply been lucky, not used any bleeders, and gone to a lot of extra trouble.

ETA: And what is this Quilting Article that is spreading VERY outdated information to our novice quilters?

I stand by my post about vinegar! I soak all dark fabrics in vinegar before I prewash. Why would I prewash the fabric, only to risk it possibly fading before I soak it in vinegar? The "whole process" takes about 5 minutes of my actual time as I don't stand there and watch it soak for an hour. Unless you have tried vinegar and had it fail, you are spreading false information about vinegar and advocating dumping more chemicals into our already polluted water supply. I knew I would get flak about this, but, as I said, vinegar has NEVER failed me and I buy a lot of fabric at JoAnn's, WalMart, and Hobby Lobby. Again, I suugest you not knock vinegar unless you've tried it and had it fail. Geez!

And I just googled over 400,000 sites that says it works, and that's a fact, too. Whatever, again, I'll keep using my vinegar as it's worked for over 50 years for me and y'all do what you want, but, please, stop responding to my posts.

If I was doing my "OWN" dying, I think taking all these extra steps would be fine and dandy.

In my opinion, if a commercially dyed fabric doesn't stop releasing dye after two or three rinses or washes, it's defective and should be returned to the store.

(Unless there is a disclaimer on the end of the bolt - Madras plaids used to notorious for bleeding - but there was a statement to that effect on the end of the bolt. I don't know if they still are or not - )